Communications of the ACM
Policymakers Hail STEM Education as a Strong Foundation, Pushing Innovation
Fifth-grader Parker Phillips learns about Newton's cradle during a STEM program in the gymnasium at Mercer County Intermediate School in Harrodsburg, Ky.
Credit: Associated Press
U.S. government officials and advocates for greater investment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education are tweaking their message, advocating STEM as a gateway to economic success, even if graduates eventually go into different fields. Among these are officials with the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, who recently pointed to STEM education as a means to greater global achievement.
The new emphasis is a slight shift away from calls to increase STEM enrollment and graduation as a means of heading off a skills shortage in those fields. Some economists and labor analysts say there is no STEM labor shortage and cynics argue that calls for more STEM graduates have more to do with keeping the supply of skilled workers high to depress wages than they do with meeting employers' actual needs. Meanwhile, a recent study found that almost three-fourths of those who receive a degree in a STEM field go into jobs in other fields.
However, STEM education advocates such as Ryan Carson, founder of Treehouse, and James Brown, executive director of the STEM Education Coalition, say regardless of any labor shortage, STEM jobs remain plentiful and relatively high-paying, and a STEM education equips students with skills that can be applied to almost any job.
From The Washington Post
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